McCALL AFTER AVENUE FRIENDLY

8 July 2017

Although disappointed with the match score from his side's opening friendly against Bradford Park Avenue, City boss Stuart McCall was glad to get things back up and running this Saturday after the summer break.

The Bantams started their pre-season programme of friendlies for the summer with a 3-0 defeat at the hands of near neighbours Avenue.

All three goals for the hosts came in the opening period, with McCall choosing to field a different side each half at Horsfall Stadium.

Following the Avenue game, which saw summer recruits Jake Reeves, Adam Chicksen, Dominic Poleon and Shay McCartan all make their debuts, City will now spend the next week abroad.

The Bantams will enjoy five days at a training camp in Austria before finishing their time away with a friendly against TV Echterdingen in Stuttgart, Germany.

Speaking about City's opening friendly on Saturday, McCall said: "This (Avenue) game has probably come a bit earlier than we would have normally planned for in pre-season, but we've come and helped Avenue out and it seems they've got a good crowd from the match.

"Obviously we would have preferred to have won - I never like to lose any game - but pre-season is all about working on your touch and your fitness levels.

"A lot of the boys got some game-time, while Tayls (Paul Taylor) and Gilly (Alex Gilliead) did some work at the training ground because they are a couple of days behind the other lads in terms of fitness.

"Regardless of whether we'd won 6-0 or lost 6-0 though, we knew there was still plenty of work to be done before the new season.

"We won't worry about a result like this, we will now look forward to a really good week's training in Austria next week.

"This week in training has just really been about fitness levels. We can now start to implement a little bit more what we want from the players for the season ahead.

"We have started now, and now we can really get some work into the players and get our message across to them in these coming weeks."